


our hearts were young

by supaprittiest



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 02:04:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7782622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supaprittiest/pseuds/supaprittiest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nicole goes to visit Waverly between getting shot and Waverly getting possessed</p>
            </blockquote>





	our hearts were young

Nicole was greeted at the door by Wynonna, and for once, she wasn’t greeted with the usual, “what are you doing here?” or “you’ve been hanging around a lot lately”. Instead, there was a tired, yet grateful smile that tugged at the corner of her lips. 

 

“Waverly’s upstairs, she’ll be glad you came over,” Wynonna said, stepping aside for Nicole to walk in. Nicole moved to pass Wynonna, but a firm hand planted on her breastbone and effectively stopped her and knocked the wind out of her. She cringed and hissed through her teeth, still tender from being shot. Wynonna snatched her hand away immediately. “Shit, sorry. Are you okay?”

 

“Fine, thanks. What’s going on?” Nicole replied cautiously, once she caught her breath. Honestly, she  _ was  _ fine, but after that, the pain around the bullet wound had returned. But she would never admit it, especially not to Wynonna.

 

“Um..,” Wynonna took a minute to get her words together. She seemed jittery and out of sorts, and above all,  _ nervous,  _ which was something that Nicole never thought she’d see from the typically tenacious girl. “I don’t think I need to tell you not to break Waverly’s heart..., Hell, I probably need to tell Waverly not to break yours. But, that being said, it’s my job to look out for her and-”

 

“Wynonna,” Nicole interrupted before her friend made any death threats. “I can take care of her.” 

 

“Just let me finish!” Wynonna pleaded, waving her hands. “I was never around to give any of her shithead boyfriends ‘The Talk’, so I just want to get this straight. Or not straight in this case.”

 

Nicole couldn’t help but smile good naturedly at the half-hearted joke. 

 

“It’s a small town, and people talk,” Wynonna said in a sad tone that made everything clear to Nicole. Of course Wynonna would understand the repercussions of small-town gossip. “I just don’t want Waverly to feel like she’s anything less because she’s dating a girl, okay?”

 

“Of course,” Nicole replied. Finally, Wynonna seemed to relax and awkwardly pulled Nicole into a hug which was short-lived and not especially emotional, though Nicole appreciated the gesture.

 

“I’m glad you’re finally in the Black Badge Division, by the way,” Wynonna said after the hug broke apart. “I can finally talk to you about all this stuff.”

 

“Another time,” Nicole said. “As much as I’d love to hear all about it- I really want to- I did actually come to check on Waverly.”

 

“Right, yeah, of course, see you later then,” Wynonna replied, rolling her eyes playfully. “Feel free to stay for dinner, but it’ll probably just be left overs. Sorry.”

 

“We’ll see,” Nicole called over her shoulder as she walked up the stairs.  

 

\---

 

Nicole found Waverly in her room, sitting on the bed, just staring at the wall. She wasn’t crying, but there was definitely something peculiar about the vibe she was giving off. Waverly’s phone was sitting on the sheets beside her, open to their own text thread. If Nicole had checked her phone, she would see a couple missed texts from Waverly asking where she was. 

 

“Hey, baby,” Nicole said softly, joining Waverly on the bed. “How are you holding up?”

 

Waverly curled up against Nicole, who habitually put her arm around her shoulders and placed a kiss to the crown of her head. 

 

“I should be asking you the same thing,” Waverly mumbled, moving to lift the hem of Nicole’s sweater before pausing abruptly. “Sorry, can I look?”

 

Nicole laughed and nodded, tugging the neckline of her sweater down to the flaring bruise left from the bullet. Waverly didn’t need to say anything for her to know that she was thinking of that night. Nicole was thinking about it too.

 

“I’m sorry I said you were only kind-of my girlfriend,” Waverly said, her fingers delicately tracing the watercolours that painted Nicole’s otherwise-pale skin. She kept her eyes down. “It’s just that we hadn’t talked about it yet and I didn’t want to pretend like we were something are aren’t, and I hadn’t told Wynonna yet-”

 

“It’s okay,” Nicole said, smiling. “We can talk about it now, if you’d like. I don’t want to rush you into anything.”

 

“I’m ready if you’re ready to be included in the craziness that is the Earp Curse,” Waverly muttered, her fingers slowly growing still on Nicole’s chest.  

 

“Hey, it’s like I said before. I go where the danger is,” Nicole replied, trying to be optimistic. “Maybe now isn’t the best time to talk about this.”

 

“Because of Willa?” Waverly asked with a sharpness to her tone. “I’ve had enough of her negatively impacting my life. We’re girlfriends now, okay?”

 

Nicole wasn’t sure how to process what Waverly had just said. On one hand, she was relieved that she could finally call Waverly her girlfriend, but on the other, she had wanted this to be a happier conversation, rather than one that seemed to be more about getting back at her evil older sister. Perhaps she’d bring it up again later.

 

“Okay,” she agreed hesitantly. “You didn’t tell me how you’re holding up. Are you alright?”

 

“Wynonna and I are going to have a little service for her tomorrow,” Waverly said, removing her fingers from the bruise and adjusting Nicole’s sweater. “But the Willa that came back from the Commune wasn’t the Willa we lost that night... After all the damage that she had endured, it’s just a wonder that she wasn’t a psychopath... Well, more of a psychopath, anyways.” 

 

“Dolls said I didn’t have to like her,” she continued. “And at the time, I was still trying to make an effort to like her, so I kind of ignored it. But I saw how easily she got along with Wynonna and I realized that even before the accident, I never had that with Willa. I was always an inconvenience to her. I shouldn’t miss that, right? But seeing how upset Wynonna is about it is what makes me upset, and I wish that I... I wish I could be what Willa was to her. Someone who could relate to being the heir.”

 

“You’re not inadequate because you were never groomed to be the heir,” Nicole insisted, though she didn’t completely understand the whole Earp Curse thing yet, and trying to understand why Waverly couldn’t be the heir as well. “And maybe you’ll never be Willa, but that’s okay. You’re Waverly, and Wynonna sure loves you a lot. In fact, I think everything that happened with Willa has only made her even more protective of you.”

 

“Great, that’s exactly what I need,” Waverly groaned, though there was a hint of a playful smile on her face. “An even  _ more  _ protective Wynonna. Soon enough, she’s going to want to chaperone our dates.”

 

“Hey, we could go on double dates with her and Doc,” Nicole pointed out playfully, and Waverly made a disgusted sound before shoving Nicole. “Too soon?”

 

“It’ll  _ always  _ be too soon,” Waverly said. “It’s like saying she could be dating my great-grandfather’s friends, except that’s literally what it is!” 

 

“Yeah, but they aren’t  _ dating,  _ they’re just hooking up, remember?” Nicole reminded her. 

 

“Ugh! Not helping!” Waverly protested. 

 

“Okay, okay, let’s talk about something else then,” Nicole suggested. “She gave me the talk when I came in.”

 

“She didn’t!” Waverly gasped, though she was grinning wickedly. “I should’ve given her the talk about the talk. Did she threaten you?” 

 

“She was actually quite tame,” Nicole remarked. “She thinks you’d break my heart before I’d break yours, but she just wanted to sound tough, I think.”

  
  


“That sounds about right. Not the part about me breaking your heart, but the being tough thing,” Waverly agreed. “Sorry if she said anything weird.”

 

“It’s okay, it could’ve been worse I guess,” Nicole replied. Waverly leaned her head onto Nicole’s shoulder. “Are you okay?” 

 

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Waverly finally admitted. “I’m glad you came over. You always make me feel better.”

 

“Do you want me to stay?” she offered. “Just until after the service, but if you don’t-”

 

“No, please, stay,” Waverly said, grasping her hand. “You don’t have to come to the service, but I’d like it if you stayed overnight.”

 

“Alright, I will,” Nicole replied, pressing a brief kiss to her girlfriend’s forehead. There was a moment of comfortable silence with Waverly leaning on Nicole, and her arm around Waverly’s shoulders. It was calm and peaceful, until another thought popped into Nicole’s head that made her nervous when she realized that she was going to have to talk to Waverly about it sooner or later. 

 

“So, um, I heard what you said to Wynonna,” she said, and Waverly’s slight frame tensed beside her. “...That you love me. I get it if you were just saying it to get Wynonna to listen, but I have to know if that’s how you feel?”

 

“No- I meant it!” Waverly insisted, turning to face Nicole. Her hand rested lightly on Nicole’s thigh, and it reminded her so much of that afternoon on the couch in Nedley’s office, except this time, Waverly didn’t move her hand away. “I mean, part of it  _ was  _ getting her to listen, and you weren’t supposed to hear it, because the way I had planned it out was going to be romantic and there wouldn’t be any guns involved, but... I do love you, Nicole.” 

 

Nicole let out the breath that she had been holding and grinned, which quickly turned into laughter. Waverly laughed nervously as well, nervously awaiting Nicole’s response. 

  
“Okay, I’m glad,” Nicole replied. “Because I love you too.”


End file.
